Scottish Government will not ban media from naming child murder victims

The Scottish Government will not propose legislation to provide legal anonymity for child murder victims.

Four options, including making no changes to legislation, were put forward in a consultation on reporting child murder victims.

The three remaining options were changing the law to provide automatic anonymity for deceased child victims, having automatic anonymity with an option for the family to apply to the court for a waiver, and the opposite.

The Scottish Government said of the 46 responses to the 12-week consultation, which closed last October, results were “mixed”.

Respondents included bereaved families, victim support organisations, children’s organisations, media and legal organisations and legal academics.

The Scottish Government’s report on the consultation published on Monday said new legislation will not be introduced as it has “made clear that there would be serious complexities with developing legislation that avoided unintended consequences; that struck a robust balance between privacy rights and freedom of expression; and that could be enforced in practice”.

Instead, it plans to work on developing media guidance and training and support for families.

Justice secretary Angela Constance said: “I do not consider that legislation would be an effective way of dealing with the complexities of reporting on child homicide cases, or flexible enough to cover the diverse circumstances of cases and the people affected by them.

“Any legislative approach would also likely criminalise ordinary human responses to the tragedy of a child’s death, such as public tributes.

“However, I understand that more could be done to highlight the impact on families and we will work with stakeholders on a range of non-legislative actions.”

She added: “I have great sympathy for the distress felt by bereaved families in child homicide cases, which can be compounded by the significant media attention that such cases attract, often well beyond the death and any court case if there is one.

“I am grateful to everyone who responded to the consultation for their thoughtful, reasoned and heartfelt views, which I considered very carefully.

“What is clear is that there needs to be more sensitive media reporting in child homicide cases, while striking a balance between a right to privacy and freedom of expression.”

Nick McGowan-Lowe, Scotland national organiser for the National Union of Journalists, said the justice secretary had reached “the only reasonable conclusion, having weighed up the interests of open justice and the right to report responsibly about the most horrific of crimes”.